


Cracks in the past

by GulValCardi_F75



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-22 01:15:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14297562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GulValCardi_F75/pseuds/GulValCardi_F75
Summary: The solarship of the « Explorers », Benjamin Sisko and his son, made it to Cardassia. Gul Dukat remembers.





	Cracks in the past

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER : Paramount owns the Star Trek universe and everything it encompasses. This story is not intended to infringe on any copyrights.
> 
> WHEN : The story is based on the episode « Explorers » of DS9 (S3E22). But Dukat’s log is written in non-linear time… 
> 
> WHY : Watching the episode, I immediately noticed the striking acting of Marc Alaimo aka Gul Dukat when giving his speech to greet Benjamin Sisko for his extraordinary journey aboard the solar ship. He made Gul Dukat feel… embarrassed. Which was stunning for this character. And his last word sounded oh so differently. So I tried to figure out what happened before this speech. And make Dukat explain it.
> 
> ACKNOWLEDGMENTS : Very special thanks to Eva Michelle Schalchlin who was kind to read my text and make the necessary corrections.  
> And, I cannot help, thank you again, Marc Alaimo, for being such a charming, intriguing character. You are forever Gul Dukat !
> 
> Comments : Yes ! Make free to give all your comments about this. I'll love it. As english is not my native language, be kind though…

******

Dukat’s log

Time : back

Location : unknown

 

« He can make it ». That is what I was told, that he could make it. However this journey was pure madness. What did he want to prove? That ancient Bajorans were smarter than we were at that time? What for? Did the « Emissary » seek acknowledgment...?

He spent weeks building this ship… this solar ship. We were told he found some blueprints of a vessel in a library on Bajor and managed to build it. And he’s taken his son with him ! What a fool. His only son ! I saw a copy of the blueprints myself and this vessel looked so fragile. I thought he would die but I secretly admired him. He is bold. I wished him good luck but... thinking I would never see him again.

Do you know why I was so angry a few days later? Because I discovered that all of what I was told before was... a lie. Like all of us, I had learned that Bajorans never left their planet to explore, or conquer. And of course, they could never have reached Cardassia as those Bajoran tales say. I laughed reading them, when coming to Bajor years ago. And I heard also old Cardassian tales too... telling about an ancient visit, but surely, they were just to frighten children.

A few days after the solar ship took off, I was ordered to receive a delegation of Cardassian archeologists led by Legate Jadek of Central Command and even a member of the Detapa Council came with them. They came into my office and what they told me was like thunder in the red sky.

More than a century ago, the remnants of a crash site were discovered on Cardassia Prime, in Rogarin Province. They were kept secret then brought to the Science Ministry here. Remnants of what appeared to be a ship... a kind of solar vessel and the examination revealed it was clearly Bajoran. They had also found bones nearby, had them collected and analyzed. Bajorans. There was no doubt about it and the datation of both these bones and pieces of wreckage was amazing, proving the tales to be true after all :  the Bajorans had the intelligence, the scientific capacity and they had done it. Eight hundred years ago, they came to Cardassia Prime! And no one knew. Oh yes, some of « us » knew but they were afraid to tell this truth to our people and decided to lie to us all.

And Benjamin made it too. The ship was detected by our sensors when entering our system, past the Denerios Belt.

Oh this speech I had to read ! They gave it to me just a few minutes before. I was... ashamed : « A testament to the spirit of the ancient Bajorans who first ventured out into space... ». I remember how my jaws were clenched. I had to smile, and above all to tell them about a so called « coincidence » of the discovery of the crash site at the same time. Lies, lies! Benjamin is not a fool. He immediately understood, I know, I felt it deep inside.

But I had a surprise prepared. A firework, to underline this extraordinary achievement. And I was glad, yes, I was glad to offer him this moment of pride and joy. I couldn’t help my voice to change when saying « welcome » to Benjamin and his boy. The least I could do...  This welcome was a genuine one. 

It was years ago but since this day, I keep thinking about one thing, an obsession : had I know this before, had I know the Bajorans did fly and reached Cardassia eight hundred years ago, would I have acted differently?

Computer, end.


End file.
